Tag Archives: when stores sell swimwear in winter

But tell me, why is it, then, that stores are already stocking swimwear and displaying it prominently in the stores?

I walked into Target the other day on my usual stock-up run and was astonished to see racks lined with brightly colored bikinis when I walked past the women’s section. It’s JANUARY for crying out loud! I shook my head and continued through the store thinking “Only in California do they start selling swimsuits in the middle of winter.”

However, when I texted this sentiment to my friend who’s currently living in North Carolina (a place where they get real winters), she promptly informed me that the Target out there was also a victim of the early swimsuit sale.

It was 28 degrees out in North Carolina this weekend.

And they’re selling swimsuits.

Now we all know that Christmas starts as early as September or October for a lot of retailers, and Valentine’s Day starts even before Christmas is over, but since when does summer start in winter?

My friend and I could only speculate as to why this might be beneficial to retailers.

Water polo and club swim teams do tend to start up around this time, but they don’t usually practice or compete in bikinis.

California’s weather hasn’t yet decided if it wants to be winter or autumn, so one could quite possibly go swimming at this time of year, but then that doesn’t explain North Carolina.

Maybe people take lots of vacations to tropical locales during the winter and thus need swimwear?

Maybe people are hoping to make summer come sooner by pulling out the swimwear racks?

Or, (and this, we decided, is the most likely), store owners are merely hoping to capitalize on everyone’s New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and get swimsuit-worthy figures in time for summer.

Now I didn’t walk past the men’s section of the store, so I cannot say if this is something only targeted to women, but since I didn’t notice this phenomenon in the girls’ section of the store, it’s probably safe to guess that it is just the women’s section.

But this is about the only way I can see anyone actually purchasing one of these swimsuits:

So tell me, what do you think about these early swimsuit sales? Would you shop for swimwear now? Why else might they be selling these suits so early? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

Post Update:

Just saw this commercial – perhaps this is why everyone’s thinking swimwear?